Jewish calendar

"Sometimes," Maria Valtorta writes on a typewritten copy, "the names [of the months] are expressed in Italian so that the reader understands better."

For example, our month of October straddles the Hebrew months of Tisri (or Etanim) and Marchesvan (or Bul). The Jewish calendar was in fact based on the lunar year, which begins in spring (as we see in 68.4), and ours on the solar year, so the correspondences are approximate.

Here are the names of the months:

1. Nisan or Abib as in 413.6 (March-April);

2. Ziv or Iyyar as in 461.7 (April/May);

3. Sivân (May-June);

4. Tammuz as in 442.3 and 461.16 (June-July);

5. Ab or Av (July-August);

6. Elul (August-September);

7. Tishri or Tisri or Etanim (September-October);

8. Marchesvân or Bul (October-November), a name never mentioned in the work: it seems to be called Etanim instead, in distinction from Tishri ;

9. Kisleu or Casleu (November-December);

10. Tebet (December-January);

11. Shebat (January-February);

12. Adar (February-March). The new moon, called neomenia, marked the beginning of the month. To make the lunar and solar cycles coincide as closely as possible, the month of Adar was sometimes redoubled, to obtain a thirteen-month year, known as embolismic (114.8).

The days

They extend from sunset to sunset. The night is divided into 3 watches (4 in Roman times). However, ancestral customs remain: In Gethsemane, Jesus spoke of the three watches of the night (9.21). Between sunrise and sunset (12 hours) we count the first hour at sunrise, the third at 9.00, the sixth at 12.00 and the ninth at 15.00.

Months

These are regulated according to the phases of the moon, and alternate between 29 and 30 days. The first day of the month coincides with the appearance of the new moon (neomenia).

The year

In ancient times, the year began in autumn (the month of Tichri), and this is still remembered in Judaism's New Year. This is confirmed by Jesus in Maria Valtorta: "Perhaps the year begins with the rainy month of Etanim, or with the sad month of Casleu, with days shorter than a dream and nights as long as a day without bread? No, it begins with the blooming, sunny, joyous month of Nisan, when everything is laughing, when the heart of man, even the poorest and saddest, opens up to hope because summer is coming" (EMV 68 - 2.31).

As this is a year based on the lunar revolution of 354 days, the delay in the solar year of 365 days is made up by the addition, every two or three years, of a thirteenth month: the new Adar (We Adar), apparently 29 days long.

This results in two or three cycles over a full 19-year cycle.

Source

maria-valtorta.org (with permission from François-Michel Debroise)

According to maria-valtorta.org, the episode of the wheat and the chaff takes place on 9 Adar I 3788, according to the Jewish calendar.

It states: "The Hebrew calendar is soli-lunar. To make up for the fact that the calendar lags behind the course of the sun, it is necessary to add an extra month every three years or so. In this thirteen-month year, the month of Adar is split into two: Adar I (normal month) followed by Adar II (intercalary month). Proportionately, we find the same principle with our leap years."